Innovation. It's been the elephant in the room ever since Tim Cook took over as head of Apple. The ingenuity and innovation that we saw in the Jobs era ended as quick as you can say "Apple sucks". Granted, it's hard to follow in the footsteps of someone like Jobs. He started multiple huge companies, invented revolutionary products like the iPhone, and was brilliant overall. And who's Tim Cook? Just a guy who served under Steve Jobs with some big shoes to step into. That being said, Apple's innovation and creativity brought it into the picture, and its death could very well take it out. Under Cook, Apple has become less innovative, less creative, and less interesting. Apple's losing it's charm, and while it's still a force to be reckoned with, Apple is becoming just another tech company.

Before you start hating in the comments: we're not saying Cook has done an awful job as CEO of the world's most successful tech giant. Apple's sales are booming, and although down a bit in 2016, people aren't losing interest in Apple. The superior software and UI that we all know and love still draws in plenty of customers. The Apple Watch has been largely successful, the Mac Pro update has been well received by many as a much-needed update to the Mac line, and the average consumer's interest in Apple hasn't been dying. But their innovation is.

Let's just make a list of incredible innovations Tim Cook has created as caretaker of Apple:

...nope. Since Jobs' death, Apple has come out with the iPad mini and Pro, tweaks to products that were already around in the Jobs era. They've released an Apple Watch which isn't remarkably different (rather than better software and hardware) than other watches in the arena. The Mac line is dead, and there are plenty of things we'd like to see before we'd consider it great again. The only "innovation" Cook's done with iPhones and Macs has been to simply remove ports and make it even harder for a user to get by without living the dongle life. Oh, and the Touch Bar. Because a tiny LCD screen makes the new Macbook Pro worth over 2 grand.

Even with all the above, Apple doesn't suck. Their products and software are still far superior to competitors. However, their innovation is dying and their image of creativity and innovation is slowly decaying under Tim Cook, who has been more of a caretaker than a CEO. Sure, he's guided Apple, and made slight upgrades to their already-existing products. But he hasn't taken any risks, made any new innovations, incredible new products or features. That's what we love about Apple. It's time for Cook to get Apple on the right track again.

Let us know what you think in the comments below.

2 Comments

David N.
~ Jan.
16,
2017 @
2:55pm

Agree wholeheartedly! While I knew it would be near impossible to replace someone of the ability and panache of Jobs, I'm sick of the "head in the sand" commentary everyone makes about Cook and the wonderful job he's done. As Ross Perot once said, "a damn chimpanzee" could've steered the success that Apple has enjoyed since Steve's death by virtue of the products already in place (or soon to be).
What we have really seen the last 5 years is the strength of Cook, who was previously Apple COO, and that's the profitable operation of a highly successful company...it was in his wheelhouse. I like Cook, but make no mistake...he's no Steve Jobs and the lack of true innovative products is the evidence.
Now there's no certainty that Jobs would have been able to continue the incredible success either; but for certain, it would have been because the public rejected the future cutting-edge innovations he strived for from the Apple team...not because he sat on his laurels, milking further profits from over-hyped changes to an existing technology.
In a lot ways, this feels like the Microsoft of 2000 when Emperor Steve Ballmer took over for Gates and sat around being told how wonderful his new clothes looked...when he really wore (i.e. accomplished) nothing!
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William Rice
~ Jan.
17,
2017 @
3:57pm

The article is true, worse Apple has killed off some massively important products for professionals and pissed off many Pros -FCP 7 series and Aperture for instance. They turn EVERYTHING into consumer crap -like Aperture and FCP (iMovie pro) –and we know exactly why, because they don't have 50 jillion people using those products.
When they put out a lame-brain laptop with ONLY 1 kind of port. Apple "may" think it's cool but it just further pisses off people - what are they thinking, and ONLY 4GB of memory -really? They learned this lesson when they dumped the firewire 800 port off a laptop years ago. Apple needs to start getting feedback from Pros -and, in the case of the iPhone headphone dongle -the people.
Back to Aperture and FCP –these Pros that DID use those products are some of the most important creatives in the world. And those creatives have influential mouths that talk to entire industry's -like film and TV and professional photography biz. That's why everybody in FILM now uses Premiere to edit and Lightroom if they are a Pro Photog -because they don't trust Apple's stupid "innovation" anymore.
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